The PSM scientific curriculum, together with “Plus” component for professional skills and the immersive Internship prepare the PSM graduates to pursue a professional career. The Computational Sciences Concentration allows students to gain knowledge and industry experience in developing bioinformatics methods, tools and/or databases for modern biotechnology or medicine. The Life Sciences Concentration allows students to gain knowledge and industry experience in applying bioinformatics methods, tools and databases as an integral approach to modern biotechnology and medicine. The BINF-PSM graduates will be well positioned to pursue a professional career in industry, business, government agencies, or non-profit organizations.
The Professional Science Master’s requires 37 credits, including 15 credits in the Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Core courses, 3 credits of Ethics, 1 credit of Seminar, 6 credits of Internship and 12 credits of PSM PLUS coursework.
An Internship is required for the PSM degree (see options). The internship can be completed at participating companies/institutions in the PSM program and be jointly supervised by the Faculty Advisor and a Co-Mentor in the hosting institution. Unless special permission is granted, students need to complete 12 credit hours of coursework prior to the start of their internship. The mentors and student will develop the internship objectives for approval by the Director of the program prior to the start of the internship. A final written report and a poster presentation are required to complete the course.
The PSM degree requires at least 12 credits of PSM PLUS coursework in addition to their science core. Whereas students in the PSM program may have professional goals that would lead them into business and industry (BI) or to government or non-profit employment (GN), the University of Delaware offers two tracks for the PSM PLUS component. The University recommends the student follow one of the PSM PLUS tracks below, however students may cross over tracks to fit their interest.